Under The Mango Trees

Chapter Seventeen : In Between Cold/Mess

I had put my phone in aeroplane mode to stop the random "ooh-ah" of Ik Junoon alarming me out of the blue. As the car door flung open and out hopped Lila- straight into the arms of Raul- I felt the prisoner in me fall down to her knees. Why couldn't she get me? Raul was the absolute worst person to date, yet she allowed him to snake his arms around her and strangle her waist.

"How are you?" I heard Anthony drawing my attention away from the sickening hold of Raul.

I folded my arms and looked resolutely at Anthony which made him nervous. I could see the nervousness in his shifty eyes which resembled a thief's at being interrogated. "Good, I guess."

"Are you uh looking forward to this trip?"

"I guess so."

He gave out a short, anxious laugh and I pointedly raised my eyebrows. "No, no-uh nothing. You're guessing a lot today . . . I guess."

"Good one bro!" Raul remarked with a broad grin, punching his lanky back which sent him staggering ahead. I hadn't realised that he had overheard our conversation, but I was glad that he wasn't deeply engrossed in Lila.

Lila caught my tight-lipped, sardonic smile, but before she had a chance to comment, Manu called out, "We should go now!"

"Your driver decides when we leave, huh," Raul said to Lila who smilingly slid in the car and sat strategically between Raul and I, knowing that I wouldn't get along with him. Anthony had the courtesy to sit in the front next to Manu and assist him with the directions. I heard Raul's smothered words, "So your driver needs directions? I should have brought Atif bhai and my car. It has more space too, we would have been comfortable."

"Manu bhaiya is the best!" Lila exclaimed suddenly and Manu confusingly looked at her through the rearview mirror, not having heard anything. "Aren't you the best? You always know the best places to eat!"

Manu laughed, humbly denying her claims, "Nothing as such. Sometimes, good things just happen to come our way."

"And bad things too! But you know where to stop and where to move ahead," Lila chipped in, feeling elated to please Manu and witness him blush.

Raul draped his arm over her shoulder, pulling her so close to him that she toppled over and he whispered into her hair, "Are you hungry?"

God. I was going crazy. I was on the verge of vomiting just hearing Raul deeply sniff her hair as if her head was a rose. Not aware of what her boyfriend was doing, Lila disengaged herself and leaned forward. "Put on some music, Anthony!" And she whipped out her over-sized sunglasses, wore them in a way reminiscent of old Bollywood actors and first turned towards me. "How do I look?"

I could see my morose face staring back at me in the reflection of those ludicrous glasses, but at least I got my winged eyeliner on point. As for Lila, she looked crazy cool. Basically, she looked like herself.

"Show me," Raul said, shamelessly holding her chin and turning her face towards him. "Wow, you look like a real heroine!"

Scoffing, I gazed out of the window and I heard Lila question me, "Why, don't I look like a heroine?" I briefly glanced at her, the sunglasses balancing on the tip of her tiny nose and the lenses almost covering her whole face. Crazy cool. I shrugged indifferently in response. "I thought these were the coolest pair of shades ever! Mama found it funny though."

The radio suddenly blasted with the latest Bollywood rap songs that I was unfamiliar with, but Raul knew the lyrics and uttered them like a parrot on steroids. Lila attempted to do beat-boxing as a way of being a supportive girlfriend, but she couldn't destroy what was already wrecked. My head throbbed- pleading for mercy, but nobody sympathized with me. Anthony and Manu blithely cheered on like classic, Indian, idle spectators.